I can’t remember when meterologists started using probabilities in forcasting tomorrow’s weather, but it cetainly helped their “batting average”. Think about it; they can’t be wrong when they predict a xx% chance of rain. If it rains they are right and if it doesn’t, they are still right. Other predictors seem to have learned something from the weathermen (or is it weatherpersons?).

For example, a man who is predicting the total collapse of our economic system said, “just because it is inevitable does not mean that it is imminent”. Now he is covered even if he lives for another 100 years because he can always say, “it is going to happen someday”. If it happens next week he will probably be hearlded as a genius. In reality his prediction is open-ended—he can’t be proven wrong, not yet anyway.

Those who choose to give an ear to this sage from Arizona have a couple of options. They can position themselves for an immediate collapse (which usually means buying precious metals and stockpiling food), or they continue their normal lives ignoring the threat of an economic debacle. The extreme version of this last person would be one who only lives for today, unconcerned about tomorrow. This also describes most people’s attitude toward God’s warning about the end of the world. Few take it seriously.

When or if our monetary system / economy will collapse is speculation. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. The truth is: NOBODY KNOWS! But people sure get up tight about the possibility.

I wonder how many of these same people are ready for the inevitable (no maybe’s re: this event), i.e. the Lord’s return? Precious few I am certain. Why? Because most people, including many Christians, don’t view the inevitable as an imminent possiblity. They may give lip-service to a belief in His return, but see no need to be ready NOW.

It is so easy to procrastinate when there is no sense of urgency. People can fill their pockets with gold and freeze-dried food if they want, but we better listen to the only One who knows the future. He said, “be ye also ready; for in an hour that you think not the Son of man commeth” (Mat. 24:44). Are you ready?   Ken Dart

Living in a material world makes it extraordinarily difficult to fathom the unseen. Some people say they don’t believe in anything they cannot see. The first man to orbit the earth, Yuri Gagarian, reportedly said, “I looked and looked, but I did not see God.” Regardless of whether those are his own words, the fact remains that modern man has adopted the concept.

However, the same people who deny God probably have no doubt about the reality of a number of things they’ve never seen. Not one person has seen a magnetic field, but most believe in magnetism. We haven’t seen George Washington, but we all believe he was a real person and our nation’s first president. The evidence supporting his place in history is undeniable.

In addition to our beliefs about the past and our acceptance of present day phenomena, we also form perceptions about the future. Man’s fascination with the future is well chronicled by numerous writings. Opinions run the gamut from annihilationism to believing in an after-life. Most cultures have embraced the latter, often referring to some sort of “heaven”. What is the basis for such a belief? There is no one to talk to who has seen the other side of death and can answer our questions.

So, is heaven a real place or just the product of wishful thinking? Be careful before you answer. The absence of a contemporary, living eyewitness does not prove or disprove anything. The only conclusive evidence we have for what lies beyond the grave is the testimony of the witnesses whose words are recorded in the Bible.

Granted, the credibility of their words rests upon the veracity of the Bible. Is it the word of God or merely a book of religious myths? I am persuaded that it is God’s word; the evidence is very compelling.

Sadly, very few take the time or exert the effort to carefully examine the evidence for the inspiration of the Bible. Most had rather draw their conclusions based exclusively upon what they see or “feel”, even though they readily believe in other things which they can neither see or touch. Why not be consistent? Evidence is evidence, whether tangible or prima facie. Beware of the devil’s lies. Just because you can’t see something does not prove that it is unreal.

God is real; heaven is real; hell is real and so is eternity. If reality is your penchant, then I would urge you to consider Jesus and His words. He claimed to be the embodiment of Deity (John 14:9) and His claims were proven by irrefutable evidence from God the Father (John 5:36-37). Also, He (Jesus - i.e. God the Word - John 1:1) is the one who promises blessings upon those who believe in the unseen, undeniable reality of His being (John 20:29). Heaven is real too; don’t miss it..

When men complain that their wives do not cook as their mothers once did, the fault may not lie so much in the cooking as in the appetite. What they forget is that mother's cooking was served to active, healthy, hardworking, hard playing, and growing boys. Now, as grown men, they sit at a different table with equally good food, but with appetites that have become dulled through inactivity, junk food, physical infirmities, and other such things. The problem is in the man, not in the menu. And it can be something like that in the spiritual realm as well.

The only hope that we really have is the hope of God’s grace and forgiveness. Whatever other hopes we may have are little more than dust and ashes if we fail to find salvation and eternal life in Him. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Without the hope of heaven, we are “lost” in every important sense of that word.

But what if we has no such hope?

There is nothing more frightful than the loss of hope. When Luke tells us that, on the treacherous winter voyage to Rome, “all hope that we would be saved was finally given up,” we sense the sickening despair of the mariners. But that kind of despair is not nearly the worst kind.

Imagine being without the hope of heaven. Many live without this hope, of course, but few think about it very much. The need for God is planted deep within us, having been put there by our Creator, but we often deny that need and expend our energies so frantically in the pursuit of other needs that we forget about our need for God, at least for all practical purposes. Even so, it is still there begging to be filled. But what if no such fulfillment existed?

We need to contemplate more seriously than we sometimes do what it is, or would be, to be without “hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). We need to quit being naive and face the ugly reality of life without God. To have had the hope of eternal life and then lost it is to be in a most pitiable condition.

But imagine having lost the hope of life with God . . . With no chance of ever getting it back! The horror of that hopelessness is perhaps the main thing that will make hell, hell. “What do the damned endure, but despair” (William Congreve). Yet if we persist in our rebellion against God, despite His pleas for us to do otherwise, that is exactly what we are setting ourselves up for. In hell, there will be no more chance of “reaching forward.” There will be no chance of ever being anything but lost, banished from God’s presence. In hell, there will be many things — turmoil, torment, and terror — but one thing is certain: there will not be any hope.

The passing of Apple Computer Co-founder, Steve Jobs, has produced some interesting observations. He has been compared to Edison, Bell, Morse, et al. One news person said his ideas and innovations have impacted the lives of more people than any other person in modern history.

Steve Jobs definitely thought “outside the box”. His partner said Steve knew what people wanted before they knew they wanted it and then he built it. All of his ingeninuity and hard work has definitely etched his name into the history books of our generation.

Many people look at Steve Jobs as the icon of success. He was brilliant, he changed the world, and he died rich ($7 billion). If inventiveness, fame, and fortune are the true measure of a man’s life, then the world owes Steve Jobs even more praise than what he has already received.

But all the world-changing prowess of Steve Jobs pales in comparison to that of an impovrished, uneducated carpenter’s son who never even had house of his own, a wife and children, or a ‘real job’. He was “despised and rejected of men”. Yet, His ability to change the world far exceeds that of Mr. Jobs by a ‘zillion’ miles.

Of course I am speaking of Jesus Christ; the one “in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily” (Col. 2:9). He is God who left heaven and came to this earth to occupy a physical body for about 33 years. But in just 3 short years He did more for humanity than a million men of Steve Jobs’ caliber. Sadly, comparitively few recognize Jesus’ accomplishments. Why?

It is easy to get caught up in the lastest and greatest gadget-crazed world we live in and forget what life is all about. We are so focused on the present that we often lose sight of the past or future.

In a few short years Steve Jobs’ name will fade from the limelight. Another genius will come along and capture the headlines. That’s life in the modern world.

However, we should never let the glory of our Lord fade. He is the only one who can change us from a dead sinner into a living saint. He knew what we really needed (eternal life) before we did and He left heaven to bring us real life. Here is the best part—He will give it to us for free (Rom. 6:23) IF we obey Him (Heb. 5:9). How could any sane person refuse such a gift? Let Him change you.

ABRAHAM “SAW” THE DAY WHEN THE MESSIAH WOULD COME, A DAY THAT WAS, FOR HIM, IN THE FAR DISTANT FUTURE. He also saw heaven: “he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). So Abraham, like all people of faith and spiritual maturity, was a person of VISION. He rejoiced to “see” many things that others close their “eyes” to.

Given the amount of evil in the world it seems like men’s hearts are bent on doing evil. But does this mean that we are born this way? Many religious people claim that all of us are born with a “depraved” or “sinful nature” which every human-being has inherited from Adam.

Unfortunately, many powerful people in the world of “religious scholarship” have been schooled in institutions where this doctrine is foundational to their belief system. It is not surprising that the world is now suffering from the influence of these people because of their work on the NIV Bible.

A quick look at the biographical summaries of the members of the NIV translation committee (www.niv-cbt) is very revealing. They were all educated by and now teach at shcools renowned for Calvinistic theology. John Calvin taught that all men are born sinners. Hence, the NIV traslation of Psalm 51:5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

The bias of the NIV translators is even more evident in the New Testament. Because of their predisposition toward Calvinistic theology, they have changed the Sacred Text in many places. They have added the word “sinful” before the word “nature” in 23 places. But there is not one verse in all of the N.T. where “sinful” occurs before “nature” in the original language (koine Greek).

Sadly, the NIV is now the most widely distributed version of the Bible in the world. Millions of people hold in their hands one of Satan’s most effective weapons: the twisted or perverted word of God. People innocently read the NIV thinking “well, it’s the Bible” and then build or reenforce their belief system based upon what they are regularly reading in the NIV.

I have noticed through the years that people who use the NIV as their primary reading / study Bible soon begin using NIV terms like “sinful nature”. Or they will read a perverted passage and never realize what they just read. If you have an NIV, I would advise you to be VERY CAREFUL; it is filled with poison (if you want more, see The Corrupt Tree Called the NIV, www.christianmediaresearch.com).

Remember, babies DO NOT inerit a “sinful nature” from their fathers (Ezekiel 18:20) or anyone else. We all choose to sin, but we ARE NOT predisposed to evil!